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| Thai Iced Tea |
Last night my husband I had dinner at Grain River Asian Bistro to
celebrate our first month of marriage. Yay! We learned about this
restaurant from a Tucson Foodie article about the best Thai places to
try in town. What caught our attention the most was that they offer
vegan meat in addition to tofu. The setback is that it is way way way
north! I think we drove 30 miles down Oracle and it was in a random
shopping center, but we had the restaurant to ourselves!
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| Pad Thai with Vegan Meat |
Our favorite dishes to order at Thai restaurants are usually red curry
and pad thai, so that's what we got. I usually like to try the Thai iced
tea when I get the chance. At Grain River, I guess they mix whipped
cream in with the Thai tea mix. I'll admit it was kind of weird. It made
it more like a dessert than something to drink with my dinner. Both the
red curry and pad thai dishes tasted different from usual. I wanted
more coconut milk flavor in the curry and I like the pad thai more
sticky and sweet.
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| Red Curry with Vegan Meat |
A staff member from the restaurant came over and thanked us for coming
in all the way from the downtown area. She then began to explain that
younger diners usually like more oily Thai food. She said that they do
more steaming of the ingredients and they try to include more
vegetables. I agree that many Thai restaurants serve more oily dishes,
so I guess I felt good knowing that this restaurant prepares their
dishes in a healthier fashion. I still missed the creaminess of the red
curry and the sweetness of the pad thai. I almost forgot to talk about
the vegan meat, a dehydrated soy protein. It was okay. I think it would
be better marinated before hand, but sometimes it's hard to make that
stuff good since it is so spongy. I'll have to try one of their Chinese
or Japanese dishes next time. The dishes were in the higher price range
around $12.50 a plate and around $16 for a Bento box. So if you want to
go for a nice cruise through the city for a healthy Thai dish and
friendly staff, then Grain River is the place to go.
